Manali Trance : A Gateway to Heaven

It was time for our annual trip and we decided to visit such a place that remains covered with snow during winters. Since in India not all cities are privileged to witness snow or snowfall ; its kind of a bliss if you get to witness such luxuries. Now, since blessings and luxuries are not that easy to avail , we will have to work a little hard for that (especially in India). So we decided to visit manali ( India ), a beautiful small town that remains snow capped anytime during the year and especially during winters. Then lets start our journey.

We started from shealdah railway station ( kolkata ) , our rajdhani express was scheduled for 4:50 pm. All the way train was running just on time but due to fog it started running late a few kilometers from Kanpur (Uttar Pradesh ). We reached Delhi ( our destination ) at around 3 :30 pm whereas we were supposed to reach at 10 :30 am ( the scheduled time ). However , it did not make much of a difference to our trip as we anyways still had time to catch our volvo bus ( made online booking beforehand ) scheduled for 6: 30 pm. So the few hours we had in hand we spent scrolling & hopping in connaught place. Walking down a few blocks we were tired , so we spent the rest of the time sipping some coffee in Cafe Coffee Day ( Connaught place ); we also packed burgers and sandwiches for our journey and finally we left for Himachal Bhavan ( from where the bus was scheduled for departure ) . If possible always make your bus reservations from Himachal Pradesh Tourism ; they also have their website from where online bookings can be done. They are a govt. organisation and hence safe & secure. there are two types of bus bookings 1. roadways 2. tourism. we made our booking for tourism bus ; they are costly cosy and comfortable, they charged around rs. 1500 per person. The conductor of the bus was a good instructor mannered and spoke good English. Finally we started our journey at 6:30 pm and at around 10:30 pm ,the bus halted for 30 mins for dinner at a dhaba called Mirchi. It was an above average dhaba and served good food ; but its good if you order for Punjabi food ( they serve some real delicious Punjabi cuisine ). After this delicious dinner ,we once again resumed our journey and went to sleep comfortably believing the driver would drop us safely. At around 5:30 am the bus again halted for a tea break for 20 mins ; no one bothered to get down as it was too cold outside and went back to sleep. Next we woke up and found us amidst snow capped mountains and checked the clock and the time was 8:30 am; while we enjoyed the view outside within an hour or so we reached our destination Manali.

We tried making our booking at the Johnson cottage but unfortunately all rooms were booked. But trust me if possible make the bookings minimum 3 months beforehand , its a lovely place to be in. Since we could not manage a reservation here, we made our reservation in silverbirch cottage after spending hours in the net and scrutinizing about the cottage on tripadvisor (with all positive reviews). We settled for a compact suite with a kitchenette bedroom living & dining on the second floor to enjoy the view. but unfortunately on arrival they could offer us a suite on the ground floor hence no view. my husband got furious and realizing his anger , they apologized for their carelessness and made arrangements in a nearby newly opened cottage ' hidden heaven cottage ' and true to its name it was actually a hidden heaven. All the rooms are well furnished , they offer a variety of rooms with different ranges (very pocket friendly). The food too is good ,if you are taking any type of package from what they offer , then your breakfast & dinner comes free. The most important advantage of this cottage is its heavenly view ( is all what you need when in manali ).

Now like a typical traveler we went ahead with our local food expeditions. we started with the very famous ' trout fish '. I ordered for grilled trout fish with stir fried veggies. I tried trout fish in almost every restaurant out there but the best was at 'KHYBER'. so if looking for a delicious trout fish go to khyber at the mall road.

The one thing I have noticed is that Japanese food is quite common in manali . every restaurant offers Japanese cuisine. We believe you should always go by the flavor of the locality so we decided to try some Japanese sushi. You will find the best sushi at the ' chopstics ' , yes the famous chopstics at the mall road ; perhaps the only road in manali . The sizzlers and momos / dumplings are also quite good here , so you can definitely give a try.

Apart from Japanese ; Chinese & Italian cuisines too are quite popular in the local restaurants. In India Chinese food are an all time favorite . Even there is myth that you find the best Chinese dishes in the hill stations of India ; trusting that myth we explored Chinese cuisine in almost all possible restaurants at the mall road. All the restaurants served some quality Chinese dishes with mouth watering flavors. Here I would like to give a special mention of 'Mountain View' restaurant again at the mall road and you may also try their delicious pork dishes. Now comes our turn to try out some cool Italian dishes , our search ended at the famous Johnson Bar & Restaurant .They had quite a few popular dishes to order but we tried the ever popular Risotto. the only minus was too much cheese , a little less cheese would have made the dish just perfect.

After all those food expedition it was time for local sightseeing. We were on a leisure trip , so we decided to take it easy and visited only a few tourist spots like the solang valley, hadimba devi temple, rohtang pass was closed due to snowfall.

Finally after a week stay we departed from manali , again in a volvo upto delhi. From delhi we boarded our sealdah-delhi rajdhani & back home.

P.S. : We opted for a cottage stay as we wanted to feel the local flavour of the place , since posh hotels; you find everywhere, but a cottage with all the modern amenities yet has a local touch in it; is what we were looking for , so if you want to put up in some posh hotels you can very well head to the ' White Meadows ' , by club mahindra holidays.